Downtown restaurant shutters after less than a year (UPDATE)

The former Cabo’s and former Pepper Jacks’s Mexican Grill may soon have another tenant willing to try their take on hip Mexican food.

On Saturday, Eater Houston reported that El Gran Malo, a restaurant that specializes in infused tequila, margaritas and tacos, will open on that corner.

The new location is much bigger than El Gran Malo’s original spot, at 2307 Ella in the Heights and will enable the restaurant to expand its food menu. In a tweet, El Gran Malo says it plans to be open on weekends at its new location and will have more information soon.

My thoughts exactly. I work downtown and the highlight of my day is leaving every afternoon.

Nobody wants to make the trip to eat downtown when you can go somewhere outside the city that is likely much cleaner, much safer and probably has better and cheaper food to boot? Plus you don’t have to pay an arm and a leg to park like you do downtown.

The demographic center of Houston is between 610 and beltway 8 along I-10.
People forget that downtown is not centrally located. There isn’t much to the SE. And much of the affluence is S, W, to N. (With biggest emphasis to the West).
I have no idea why people are so insecure here that they think we have to force downtown to be something other than great office space. Why do we have to copy other cities?
There are no major retailers left in downtown. They clearly recognize what city hall cannot – no matter how much money you waste developing downtown, it is not where consumers want to go.
The Astros and Rockets did not want to be downtown, but we forced them to be there (or not get public funding).
We have spent enough already to see this was a failed experiment. They have been pushing downtown development for 30 years – and still it is not able to support a single major retailer.
Houston is a huge town, there is room for development outside downtown, but still within the vast city limits – at reduced costs to taxpayers, and private businesses. Land is cheaper and closer to consumers with money. Why does it matter if it is in the Galleria area or downtown? When we have out of town visitors, we don’t take them downtown – they want to go to get great food or do some shopping – and that isn’t downtown.
Now all the people that have some inferiority complex about Houston, or moved here from some other place (hey why did you leave if it was so great?) will tell you I’m wrong – but the consumer has spoken – why don’t we listen to them for a change?

Why is having a large retailer an indication of success? Many of us don’t like the suburban lifestyle, with big box retailers you have to drive to. Major retailers can’t compete in most downtown areas around the country, because they rely on sales volume, and the cost per square foot doesn’t allow them to have enough inventory to survive.

Time and time again, research has shown that the DINKs who are typically the entrepreneurs and professionals prefer walkable city life over suburbia. These are the primary sustainers of job growth in a city, with their new business startups and spending capacity. If all that money on developing downtown has been “wasted”, why are we the most successful city in the nation for real estate and jobs?

And for the record, I feel far safer living in downtown than I do suburbia. I fled the suburbs (Katy area) for downtown after a couple of drug-related shootings in the apartment complex. Most of the crime these days is in suburbia, it appears.

Based on the current postal delivery statistics file, there are 14 single family homes and 2,405 multi family homes. If 2 people per address is assumed, we can estimate approximately 5,000 souls live within the “Downtown” boundaries.

If you actually read the website, you will notice that most crimes are committed outside of downtown. Downtown is the safest neighborhood in the city dur to the large police presence and buildings having security at night. I have no idea how anyone could feel safe in the suburbs, where there are lots of robberies, car jackings, and homicides.

There are even less crimes in the country – because there are less people there.
Think about it.
There are a few thousand people living downtown, there are over 2 million living outside downtown.
There are 6 million people living outside downtown in the metro area.
You have got to expect that with 600 TIMES more people outside downtown, you will get more crime out there.

Ryan – just because there’s a development at I-10 and Beltway 8 called City Centre doesn’t make it the center of the city. Yeah, that’s a great suburbian development and all but have you seen the area to the north? It’s not all that impressive with several big box retailer having vacated. Kind of like downtown….

I’ll respond to the low information people since they need educating on the facts.
First, look at a map of Houston (try google). Notice that Downtown is not in the center. Look to the South East. Notice there are few roads over there. Compare to the Westside.
Now that we have established that Downtown isn’t the center of town, consider that everyone doesn’t make the same amount of money. Considering that (NE, E, and SE being lower income than the N, W and S) you can see that the consumer dollars are even further to the West.
Experts have repeated said that the Geographic, Population and Economic purchasing power is centered from 610 to Beltway 8 along I-10.
I have no idea where this bias against the Galleria (and NW of there) area comes from. You get that it is still in Houston?
So the extremely limited number of people willing to drive to downtown to shop or eat makes sense when you know the demographic data. It’s why major retailers left.
It’s why unlike nearly all other restaurants, the ones in Downtown do more business at lunch than dinner. Counting on the few people who go to a entertainment venue AND eat in that area (and not IN the venue such as the stadiums)is very risky. Add high rents and you see why our best restaurants are outside downtown.
We tried making downtown like other cities’ downtowns. It failed.
Let’s move on to developing areas that consumers want to go to.

Let’s hope the next place does better. There’s plenty of opportunity for restaurants downtown that don’t try to get overly pretentious (let’s face it, people go to a restaurant to eat, first and foremost) to make a mint on the downtown lunch market.
Look at how packed Subway, McDonald’s, and other restaurants are- keep it affordable, let people be able to get full… and the bottom line will be much nicer.

There are just too many competing social venues now. Cabo was great when down town was the place to go, but with the rise of the Washington Corridor, and not to mention all the ghetto people that ride the light rail in and chase away upscale patrons, a sub par Tex Mex restaurant was doomed. The social scene here in Houston is always a game of staying a step ahead of the wide spread ghetto people that destroy the vibe and chase away the hot girls.

Washington Ave has already passed the tipping point. It’ll eventually die like Richmond Ave between the loop and Beltway did. It’s anyone’s guess which will be the next hot area – it could be Heights, Downtown Main St., or ? Midtown wins right now.

I do miss Cabo’s margaritas but Jack’s food was awful. It must be difficult to operate in downtown because outside of lunch there really is not enough foot traffic to keep busy. However, I am sure the rents aren’t cheap so its kind of a catch 22 for business owners.

Stop trying to jack people with those high prices, and people will come and dine at the downtown restaurants. Luby’s, Frenchy’s, Wendy’s, Timmy Chan, Kentucky, Burger King, and Whataburger should all be on the street level of the main streets. If these restaurants would clean house on the street level of downtown and not hidden from the general public in the tunnel closing at 2:00 P.M..

Parking is difficult, valet parking makes availability worse unless you can afford it. The parking meters are great for those that prefer to use their debit and credit cards, but I prefer cash. (And the numbering on the many of the slots with the central meters is missing or unreadable.)

Because of high rents, food is overpriced. Cheaper and often better food can be had by just driving a couple miles out of the downtown area.

At one restaurant I went to earlier this year the service was slow, the food tepid. Meanwhile I got to listen to a couple of waiters complain about the measly 15% tips. Maybe if the food was warmer and they remembered a better tip reflected better service they’d get better tips. (I worked for tips for over 5 years, I know of what I speak.)

For restaurant owners, the cost of doing business is often so high that just being good isn’t an option. That’s usually “good” enough to slowly lose money. Bureaucratic delays in getting permits can increase upfront costs and sink a place before it can establish itself.

Then there is the problem of being in the public eye. Restaurants downtown are under greater scrutiny by everybody and that can lead to failure by media and public perception.

Biggest reason, however, downtown Houston is a dreary, spread out place. I would rather spend the weekend in Ft. Worth or Austin. They do it right.

I’ve worked downtown for decades and I live very close to downtown, but I have to agree that it’s difficult to have a successful restaurant there because so many want to leave the area after work, or at least after a drink or two. The restaurants in the tunnel system are in the tunnel and close early to keep out people who may otherwise pose a problem, i.e. the homeless and other so-called “undesirables.” The parking will always be a problem and regardless of the rail that runs up and down Main, unless one lives along that rail line, she or he will still need to drive. Houston is simply not designed – and never has been – to be a pedestrian city. The emphasis on downtown rail was to do mainly two things: 1) accommodate the downtown business and 2) force more people (hence, higher ad valorem taxes) to live downtown. This effort, and those of creating tax investment re-investment zones, aim at, again, stabilizing the economic base of downtown property owners and businesses. While there’s nothing wrong with that, we again have to understand that Houston was and is a wide-open, sprawling city where housing is oh so much less expensive out of downtown.

Wife and I live right across the street From Pepper Jack’s. Here is the real deal. Great margaritas but pricy. Bland food. And THE WORST SERVICE EVER. I was a regular for the margaritas and I would sit at the bar while 5 to 7 servers would play grab @SS for 20 minutes until I yelled for service. Walking back and forth right past me the whole time. WORST SERVICE EVER…..and bland food. Doomed from the start.

Why should we drive 50 minutes to get to downtown, search 30 minutes for parking, pay 20$ to park, walk through the heat to get to the restaurant, then pay double what a restaurant closer costs because of the unreasonable rents downtown?

There is nothing downtown that’s worth the hassles of the bad traffic and the pricey parking. It’s just that simple. If the parking was free if you give the parking garage your receipt, that would help. But not much. No matter how you cut it, there’s very little downtown that’s worth the hassle, time, and money to reach it. And no, your train that goes from downtown to downtown isn’t helping get us in or out of downtown, so that’s worthless in making downtown a party place.

in response to KewlRR, the current postal deliver statistics show 14 Single Family homes and 2,405 Multi Family homes. Assuming 2 people per address, we can estimate approximately 5,000 souls living in the classic Downtown area.

Never been to Pepper Jack’s, never heard of Pepper Jack’s, just wanted to comment that if a restaurant has a sewer smell, that usually means that the floor drain p-traps have dried out. Solution is to periodically pour a bucket of water down each floor drain.

If a restaurant closed within a year, it was not properly financed to establish a clientele. Most places do not even break even for the first 3 or 4 years and this is why your business plan needs to include enough funds to sustain the business no matter where it is located.

As far as the comments regarding downtown as a location, I agree that you need to focus your marketing program on taking advantage of the great many people that work there as a primary target. Lunch and early dinner should easily be able to draw enough customers to sustain such a place but you have to compete with a lot of other establishments so you can’t, “smell like a sewer”, “have lousy food”, “have poor service”, or any of the other attributes mentioned above and still succeed for long.

Downtown, during the day at least, is one of the safest places in the region too but without good parking, you better make deals with local businesses to take advantage of folks already parked nearby or you’re going to have a tough time. In all though, most businesses start on a wing and a prayer rather than a well thought out plan so they are destined to fail under the best of circumstances.

As far as I was concerned the place was a first rate “choke and puke” restaurant. The food was horrible and the service double horrible. The El Chico TV dinner out of the WalMart freezer was better than what I had.

People want to be close to downtown, just a simple fact. The closer to the inner loop, the higher home-values are, and the the more they appreciate. Simple economics. As Pet Clark sang 50 years ago, “When you’re alone and life is making you lonely you can always go…..Downtown..”

As I have said before….the parking is the real problem Downtown. What incentive does anyone have for driving downtown to pay outrageous amounts to park just to eat at an overpriced restaurant? This city has too many restaurants with free parking for anyone to want to pay. Fix the parking problem and you will fix most of the problems with going downtown. The only other problem is the panhandlers, 3 or 4 on every block making others uncomfortable walking. People gotta feel safe no matter what the crime rate is.

You do realize that parking is free after 6pm, and free all day on Sunday, right?

To all the people complaining about the homeless asking for spare change, the undesirables riding the rail, or the occasional smell of urine, you obviously have never lived in Manhattan. New Yorkers are subjected to 5x what Houstonians have to face, but aren’t deterred to eat in downtown after work hours.

I love to see the suburbanites getting bent out of shape over anything inner loop related…..”Oh no a raccoon walked across Main St.!!!!! this is what my tax dollars are going too??”..they spit out there Wal-mart Iced and go on some stupid rant about how living in Katy and driving 10 thousand miles a week and going to apple-bees and going to Katy Mills is so much better than this “failed downtown experiment”….while I believe every great city needs great suburbs and Houston has some you also need a great city center…..yo lame ignorant Tea party supporting tools…

Sambuca Restaurant has survived for over 15 years because they offer an above average experience: live music and dancing with dinner.

I’ve lived all my life inside the loop. I can walk to Sundance Film Center, Minute Maid Park, etc. I do not spend 10% or more of my day in traffic. Inner loop high-end apartment construction is going like gangbusters. There’s dangers everywhere, but per capita there’s more robberies, burglaries, etc. in the suburbs.

We’ll build an economy on retail, restaurants and entertainment, NOT.
And the tram will bring folks from far and wide to walk and gawk, NOT.
Guess the Cotswold debacle didn’t work either, so now we’ll have ‘complete streets’.
Spare me city hall, spare me.

Why are there discussions of this area is better than that and so on…? This is a story about a business closing right?

Seems to me that when we all buy real estate, it is an inherently personal decision. If you live in one of the burbs, great. If you live in the loop great. We live downtown because we speculated that our home would appreciate much quicker than had we purchased somewhere else when we bought it six years ago (it has since tripled, we intend to rent it out). Our commute is 5 minutes, we save on gas, have more time for ourselves, etc. We don’t have much of a yard, we take our little one to discovery green for outside time. We really didn’t like the idea of driving through a neighborhood for 10 minutes to find our house in the suburbs.

If you live downtown or in the loop, be happy! You made your decision to purchase in the area for your reasons. If you live in one of the suburbs, be happy! You also made decisions for your own reasons.

Ive been dealing with the pan handling as well. The first couple years i lived downtown it really wore me down , but then i kinda started to get to know em ,..the ones who are just game runners and the ones you dont mind helping out are easily identifiable after a while.

Why should I pay to park and go eat? Plus their poritons were so small you needed three of them for a meal. And then their prices were ridiculous for what you got IF you ever received your order. Poor food, poor service, no parking and high rent = closing.

As long as the city allows the parking garages or lots to price gauge- Down Town, will never thrive! Why would any one go eat Mexican food Downtown? When there is a million Authentic Mexican restaurants all around the city? And you don’t have to walk a mile after you pay to park! Not to mention Mexican people prefer not to go down town, that’s too close to the court house and infested with pigs. Anyone with common sense knows you don’t go drink a few downtown your just asking for trouble and most of us cant afford a Taxy which brings me to another thing why are Taxy’s so expensive in Houston? I been all around the world and I never been to a place where you pay so much- You are better off BBQing at home

Why should the city have the authority to regulate what a private business can charge? If you owned the parking garage which would you prefer, charging people $1.00 to park there or $20.00 to park there? If no one pays $20.00 then lower the price to $15.00. Simple capitalism economy.

This inside the loop, outside the loop bickering is silly. We settled in the northern burbs 14 years ago because we got a big house for a great price in what we thought would be a great school district. If we were rich and child free we would have settled inside the loop. Who cares. We are all in this city together. We go downtown often for shows and concerts and enjoy finding good restaurants downtown. We go to most of the plays put on at the Alley so are always interested in new restaurants within walking distance. If we are going out to eat without going to a show we stay in the ‘burbs because it’s too far to drive downtown just for dinner. Chill people. Restaurants will come and go if they can’t make enough profit. All you in the loopers don’t want the outsiders to come live with you because there isn’t enough room itl for all of us.

Is this corner deed restricted to bar any but Mexican eateries?
Gone in six months.
I don’t travel downtown to dine, nor do I know any who do…but we’ll continue the path of sucking tax bucks from the 650 sq. mi. of Houston to keep on ‘revigorizing’ downtown.
Ergo the tax bucks thrown away on hotels, rehab loans that are never repaid, Cotswold Project (remember that and its legacy of stupid sidewalk blocking water features and narrowed streets) style nonsense.
Is this a great city or what?

I really wish this restaurant luck, but they have an unsolvable major issue facing them…PARKING.

All the paid lots and streets around them are always filled with other traffic. It is next to impossible to fill the restaurant, like Grand Lux, Pappas and the like, with the available parking. It was the same situation with The Capitol Restaurant closure. Now, the city can help with this issue by bringing more RESIDENTS downtown, by running the trolleys strategically throughout downtown connecting parking lots in downtown to business areas with parking issues, and by building city-owned parking lots to drive down the cost of parking down on private lots.

Things that the restaurant can do is One, market specifically to a younger, more urban crowd that doesn’t mind taking a 2 block walk from the car to their door. Secondly, actually market to the current residents downtown. I live in the Rice Hotel directly across the street from Pepper Jack’s and have never received any marketing material from them.

This comment is directed to the person who stated they moved from Katy to downtown to “escape crime” because more crime happens in the suburbs. Wrong. More crime happens in the city of Houston – southwest area to be exact but the others aren’t exempt. Get your head out of the sand (or wherever else it might be).